Life trustee, alumnus, and ‘true Beloiter’ Dave Threinen has died

In an email to campus Wednesday (Aug. 21), President Bierman informed the Beloit community that Dave Threinen’56 passed away on Tuesday night.

A memorial service will be held in Eaton Chapel on Saturday at 1 p.m., with a reception to follow in the Wright Museum of Art Courtyard.

Threinen earned a B.S. in anthropology and geology magna cum laude from Beloit in 1956 before pursuing a master’s degree in geology from Northwestern, where he was the recipient of a Woodrow Wilson fellowship. Threinen held the title of President and CEO three times—at Statex Petroleum, Convest Energy Corporation, and Thri-Tec Corporation, in addition to vice president, COO, and other managerial roles with companies including J. M. Huber, Tricentrol United States, and Pan American Petroleum (Amoco).

Threinen served the college as an alumni trustee from 1981-84 and a trustee from 1984-2006, and he was elected life trustee in 2006—the same year that he and wife Jane’56 were awarded a Distinguished Service Citation, the Alumni Association’s highest honor. (Read the citationhere.)

“There is much to say and celebrate about this man, but I’ll end with this,” wrote Bierman. “If you have a copy ofSweet Mad Youth of Old Beloithandy, turn to page 861 and read Dean William Alderman’s “True Beloiter” chapel address from 1925. If ever there was a true Beloiter, it was Dave Threinen. I think you’ll agree.”